CANDO — Jesse Vote has been coaching most of these kids since they were in third grade.
North Star seniors Dane Hagler, Parker Simon, Karsen Simon, Garrett Westlind, Zachary Jorde and Chas Bisbee played their final high school games on Tuesday. The Bearcats entered the day with the odds in their favor, only needing to take one of two games to advance to the state tournament. But they couldn’t get it done.
“It’s a special group of kids,” Vote said. “And it’s starting to wind down. And you just have to hold those times in those moments a little closer.”
These kids have grown up playing sports with each other in the small town of Cando, North Dakota. They’ve been through triumph, heartbreak and a whole lot of learning through a plethora of seasons among multiple sports.
And they were so close to the state tournament. They really were. They handily took care of business against Bottineau on Monday, meaning they only needed to win one more game to punch a ticket to state. Bottineau stayed alive in the nightcap on Monday, giving the Braves another chance against the same Bearcats they’d gotten run-ruled by.
North Star (10-5) even had its ace, Hagler, going for Game 1 on Tuesday. But the Braves (13-7) prevailed in a tight, back-and-forth affair to take down the vaunted Division II commit in a 5-3 battle. They kept their momentum rolling over North Star in the do-or-die game that followed, winning the contest 9-5.
So instead of a fifth-straight trip to state for the Bearcats, it was the Braves who got to celebrate on the Cando home grass. And North Star could only watch somberly from the sideline.
“Just try to find something to take away from the day as a whole, whether it’s a life lesson or a baseball lesson,” Vote said. “Because obviously, the game of baseball has lots of things that you can learn from things like that… We didn’t get to where we wanted to go, or one of our goals, but that’s how the game of baseball works sometimes.”
Game 1
Hagler, a four-sport standout, got his chance to take center stage. He wasn’t invincible out of the gates, though. The Braves struck him for six hits in the first three innings, collecting a run in each of the first and third innings. Hagler still racked up five strikeouts in that span, showcasing a mid-80s fastball and an effective breaking ball.
Bottineau was very careful about pitching to Hagler all day. He walked in his first plate appearance, and came around to tie the game at a run apiece on Zack Jorde’s RBI single.
But, after retaking the lead in the third, Bottineau maintained a 2-1 advantage for the majority of the game. The Bearcats’ offense struggled to get a rally going.
“Our bats just didn’t come alive at all,” Vote said. “We just couldn’t find any energy to get anything to go our way.”
Hagler settled in on his end. He retired seven in a row at one point, six via the strikeout. The only other batter in that span hit a line drive that Hagler caught right below his chin.
North Star showed a sudden burst of life with two outs in the sixth. P. Simon was hit by a pitch, and then Dane’s younger brother, Hunter Hagler, smacked a triple to right field. The Braves tried to nab him at third, but the throw got away, and Hagler was able to sprint home.
It was about as quick and drastic a momentum shift as one gets. North Star led, 3-2.
Unfortunately for the Bearcats, D. Hagler didn’t have three more clean outs in him. With one out in the inning, a single, a walk and a single tied the game up. The go-ahead run scored on a comebacker to Hagler, and another came in on a wild pitch. It was a three-run inning to jolt Bottineau ahead 5-3. Hagler’s final line included 11 strikeouts, along with five runs (four earned) on eight hits and three walks.
The 7-8-9 batters for North Star went down in order in the final frame. Hagler was left standing on deck.
The Bearcats’ momentum, which they’d snatched so effortlessly in the sixth, evaporated within the span of one ugly inning. And it started to feel more and more like Bottineau’s day.
Game 2
The Braves had a 1-0 lead before an out was even recorded. A double off of P. Simon put Bottineau ahead two batters into the game, and another scored on a fielder’s choice to put North Star in an immediate 2-0 hole.
To the Bearcats’ credit, they grinded out plate appearances. They walked twice in the first inning, and although they didn’t capitalize, they came right back out in the second and kept the line moving. The dugout was getting louder, not wanting to let up or give in. Ross Thompson drew a disciplined walk, and Brody Svir hit a single to load the bases.
That brought up D. Hagler.
He found himself in a quick 0-2 hole, but he singled up the middle anyway. It brought in two runs, and the game was tied.
“You guys didn’t quit,” Vote said he told his team. “We tried to stay in there and gut it. We could have laid down and died.”
Simon settled in, but he had to come out due to a pitch count limit with one out in the fourth. When he exited, the Braves had just cut him a huge break; the runner on first bizarrely only advanced one base on a ball that nearly left the yard. He likely should have scored, if not been on third at the very least.
So Parker’s twin brother, Karsen, took over for him with two on.
That’s when things went awry.
A single put Bottineau back ahead, and then three consecutive walks made it 5-2. Vote visited the mound to try to help Simon, who was overthrowing his fastballs. But another single brought in two more runs and gave the Braves a 7-2 lead.
“They’re such a tough-hitting team,” Vote said. “They get two strikes on ‘em, and there’s so many times they just blooped it over and found the open hole.”
Simon still managed to finish the inning. And, like his identical twin brother before him, he settled in over the next two innings.
North Star tried to ignite two-out rallies in both the fourth and fifth innings. In the former, Bottineau intentionally walked D. Hagler, despite having a five-run lead with first base occupied. That’s not a move one will see in baseball very often. But it paid off, and the Braves escaped trouble. Then in the fifth, H. Hagler — who arguably saw the ball better than any other Bearcat on Tuesday — and K. Simon hit two-out singles. Pinch-hitter Sutton Larson reached on an error, trimming Bottineau’s lead to 7-3.
Despite the Bearcats holding on by figurative strings at this point, they nearly pulled off a miracle in the sixth inning.
The first two Braves reached against Simon, but a double play and a strikeout helped him get out of it. Then in the bottom half, North Star started to garner up some energy in its bats. Svir led off with a single, and D. Hagler hit a ground ball under the second baseman’s glove. Westlind walked to load the bases, and P. Simon hit a one-out single that drove in two runs.
It was 7-5.
K. Simon was intentionally walked to load the bases back up. A single could have knotted the contest and brought this wild day to a standstill. But Sean Freund popped up to second, and the threat was over.
Bottineau rallied for two more runs against Simon in the seventh, halting the streak of momentum North Star was on. And the Bearcats couldn’t do anything with a Thompson leadoff walk in their final chance of the evening.
D. Hagler flew out to right field in the final at-bat of his high school career. He was the second-to-last out of the day.
It wasn’t the way the Bearcats hoped they’d be packing up, with Bottineau celebrating and taking team pictures in their outfield. Bottineau fans were honking their cars and shouting “Go Braves!” as they drove down First Ave. in Cando.
But a major consolation Vote took away was that this group still gets to play summer baseball. In addition to being the boys’ basketball and baseball coach, he also coaches both the American Legion and Babe Ruth summer teams.
And for Hagler, one could say the journey is still beginning. After summer baseball, he has a four-year career at the University of Jamestown ahead of him. He’ll be going from the small town of Cando to an NCAA program.
“The college baseball scene will be interesting for him. It should be a fun time for him,” Vote said. “It’ll be fun to see how he does at that rank. And the good news is, I’ve still got him for a couple more months.”
That he does, at least.
